CHRISTCHURCH HARMONIC SOCIETY

Evening Star, Issue 22003, 12 April 1935, Page 1

CHRISTCHURCH HARMONIC SOCIETY

Although the programme to he presented by the society to-morrow evening is sufficiently diversified to satisfy the most exacting of musical tastes, yet the choir has recently performed even more difficulty works such as Constant Lambert’s ‘ Rio Grande ’ and Vaughan Williams’s ‘ Benedfcite.’ To repeiat these works outside Christchurch would require the addition of. instrumentalists to the already large party which is visiting Dunedin; but it is nevertheless ing to know that the society has adopted the policy of performing each outstanding contemporary British work as it appears. The programme will include two choruses froin Bach’s monumental work, the 4 Mass in B Minor.’ It will also include an example of the work of Handel; not the Handel of the oratorios but of the littleknown operas. A chorus (‘ The Heart That’s Contented’) from one of these has been arranged by Sir Henry Wood, and will be sung by the choir. Gustav •Holst’s music snows an enthusiasm for the British folk-music idiom in its diatonic virility. Holst’s ‘ 148th Psalm.’* and his ‘ Turn Back Oman ’ are both fine examples of his_ genius. Another •leader '(happily still with us) is Vaughan williams, whose 1 Whether Men Do Laugh or Weep ’ will be the concluding item in the programme. For male voices, Hugh H. Roberton’s ‘The Old Woman’ is a short but beautiful work, and the same composer is responsible, for ‘Here a Solemn Fast We Keep,’ ‘Maureen,’ and ‘Nightfall in Skye.’ ‘The Blue Bird’ is the work of the late Sir Charles Stanford. Percy Fletcher’s ‘ Bees,’ .Purcell Mansfield’* arrangement of- ‘ The Campbells Are Cornin’,’ and Dr Stanley Marehant’s amusing part-song (‘The Traction Engine’) will all help to give variety to the programme. Myra Hess lias made an arrangement of Bach’s ‘ Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring.’ This (with Chopin’s ‘ Tarantelle, Op. 43) will be played by Miss Bessie Pollard, a leading Christchurch pianist. Dr Galway will play the organ during the evening, and the St. KiFda Band will play outside the hall prior to the beginning of the concert. Plan and day sales are a* Begg’s, • .